HOT CHIP - Made In The Dark

Patterns and cycles are arguably the most essential structural elements in nature. However, many people would argue that these patterns and cycles only exist as constructs of the human need to contain, contextualize, and narrativize everything around them. Hot Chip perfected mechanical repetition on their 2006 album The Warning, making a good case for the inorganic occurrence of repetition via their assembly-line approach to music, yet at the same time it felt completely natural. The reason I imagine people responded to it so well must stem from the fact that we indeed biologically crave the patterns, recognition, and predictability that Hot Chip serves us so well. So, if you're Hot Chip and you’ve mastered the musical ‘hook’, where do you go from there? You do it all over again.

That’s what Hot Chip have done on their latest album Made In The Dark. The result is catchy and energetic, memorable, and repeatable, yet it feels a bit lazy production-wise: the downside of repetition being lethargy. That’s not to say the songs are boring. In fact there are several jaw-dropping tracks on Made In The Dark, but it feels like the album exists for the purpose of remix, something Hot Chip more than any other indie/electronic act out there knows a lot about. It’s as if they’ve made an album tempting and completely accommodating of remixers.

Also missing is the self-conscious nerd humor of their last two albums in favor of a tongue in cheek self-seriousness that works at times, but is less immediately engaging at others. Hot Chip have been working hard to shake the electronic-Devo stigma they were branded with early in their career and Made In The Dark makes the divorce apparent – they are their own band with a very distinct sound. However, being a cultural taste maker in your own right comes with its own stigma: raised expectations and it is clear from their contribution to the DJ-Kicks series and on Made In The Dark that the band feels the pressure to dig into deeper and more obscure material in order to stay ahead of the curve. It works most of the time, but there is a reason a lot of this stuff is so obscure in the first place. Made In The Dark is another great album of fun, danceable tracks (particularly the slow-dances) that will keep Hot Chip at the front of the pack for a time to come.